Youth under construction: the United Nations’ representations of youth in the global conversation on the post-2015 development agenda

Abstract

As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals approaches, youth have been ushered into the United Nation's decision-making processes for global development in the post-2015 era with a sense of uncontested urgency. Through the “global conversation” – a large scale participatory process involving consultations with youth and other groups – participation has featured prominently in the making of the post-2015 global development agenda. Using discursive analysis of reports produced on the global conversation, we argue that the UN is reconstructing youth as a social category and identity through such processes. We also conclude that by constructing youth as “asset”, “risk” and “good citizens in the making”, the UN seeks to draw young people into global development primarily as subjects of neoliberalism.

Résumé

À mesure que l’échéance de 2015 des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le développement (OMD) se rapproche, les jeunes ont été amenés au processus de prise de décision des Nations Unies pour le développement global post-2015 avec le sentiment d'urgence incontesté. Tout au long de la « conversation globale » – un processus participatif à grande échelle qui implique des consultations avec les jeunes et d'autres groupes – les jeunes ont joué un rôle important dans la formation du programme de développement post-2015. En utilisant l'approche discursive des rapports produits sur la conversation globale, nous estimons que les Nations Unies reconstruisent les jeunes en tant que catégorie et identité sociale. Nous concluons également qu'en construisant les jeunes comme un « atout », « risque » et « bons citoyens », les Nations Unies cherchent à les mobiliser au développement global comme sujets du néolibéralisme.

Keywords:

• global youth development
• post-2015 development
• neoliberal development
• youth participation
• global development goals

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on how to improve the original manuscript.

Notes

1. The post-2015 global development agenda will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a set of eight development goals, with specific targets and indicators – which were implemented by the UN in 2000 in order to measure progress toward development globally. The MDGs will expire in 2015. In anticipation of this deadline, the UN has conducted a large-scale participatory process, called the global conversation, which is meant to inform a global development agenda for the post-2015 era.

2. For a more detailed analysis of the politics of the UN's post-2015 global consultation process – and how the participation of stakeholders is represented in final reports – see Enns, Bersaglio and Kepe (2014).

3. The countries include: Colombia, Croatia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Philippines, Romania, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and the UK.

4. While the notion of youth as asset is closely related to the idea of youth as “human capital”, we suggest that a slight distinction can be made between the two terms. The idea of human capital refers to the knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences that any individual has to offer society and, in turn, the global labor economy. In contrast, the UN's conception of youth as assets prizes entrepreneurialism and economic potential over other means of contributing value to society.

Additional information

Biographical notes

Brock Bersaglio is a PhD candidate in Human Geography at the University of Toronto. His main research interests include the politics of international development and biodiversity conservation, with a focus on Africa south of the Sahara.

Charis Enns is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the University of Waterloo. Her main research interests include global development governance and the politics of development.

Thembela Kepe is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto and Visiting Professor in the Geography Department at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. His current research focuses on people–environment interactions, land rights and the politics of development projects. He has co-edited Land, Memory, Reconstruction and Justice: Perspectives on Land Claims in South Africa (2010) and Rural Resistance in South Africa (2012).